Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas

November 11 is a date commemorated by many people for many different reasons. In England and many of its former colonies, including Canada, November 11 is a national holiday to “honour” the countless soldiers who have died in the “service” of their countries. November 11 was chosen because that is the date in 1918 that the Armistice was signed in Europe putting an end to the First World War, an unnecessary mass slaughter of millions of people, civilians and soldiers. In the United States, November 11 is “Veterans’ Day.” With the October Revolution in Russia the previous fall taking Russia out of the conflict and instilling fears in the other European ruling classes that their turn would be next, with mutinies and revolts spreading in Germany, the powers that be decided it was time to put an end to the conflict, lest they be consumed by it like the millions of their lowly subjects and now the Czar of Russia.

The October Revolution in Russia

For anarchists, November 11 is the anniversary of the judicial murder of the Haymarket Martyrs, five anarchist revolutionaries condemned for their radical ideas and actions, for having had the audacity and the impertinence to challenge the violent rule of the state and its minions, the police, the army and the courts, and to call for the workers to fight back and reclaim their freedom and dignity.

The Haymarket Martyrs

In Canada, England and New Zealand, red plastic poppies are distributed by veterans’ groups every November to raise money and to commemorate the soldiers who died fighting other soldiers in other people’s wars. To counter these state-sponsored attempts to maintain patriotic loyalty by venerating those forced to commit violence against others, various groups have for decades distributed white poppies as symbols of peace.

The Conservative government in Canada is now waging a propaganda campaign against the white poppy, denouncing anyone for wearing one for trying to “politicize” Remembrance Day, as if Remembrance Day is anything but political. The architect of this campaign is Julian Fantino, the Minister of Veterans Affairs and the former head of the Toronto police and the Ontario Provincial Police. When head of the OPP, Fantino took an aggressive approach to protests by First Nations people, and was responsible for overseeing security at the G8 summit in Huntsville, Ontario in 2010. The Conservative government is big on “law and order,” bringing in more mandatory prison sentences, outlawing the wearing of masks at public demonstrations, and continuing the unsuccessful “war” against drugs. As with other right wing parties, the Conservatives are also waging a war against organized labour, banning strikes in various industries, imposing onerous reporting requirements to which corporations are not subject, and threatening to bring in “right to work” legislation.

In Volume One of Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas, I included a short piece by the Russian novelist, pacifist and anti-authoritarian, Leo Tolstoy, against war and militarism, “Compulsory Military Service” (Selection 75), taken from his book, The Kingdom of God is Within You(1894). Here I present an alternate translation of part of that selection, published by Alexander Berkman in his paper, The Blast, in May 1916, during the ultimately successful “Preparedness” propaganda campaign to involve the United States in the war in Europe.

Leo Tolstoy: The Workers and Patriotism

To keep the majority of men in submission, the minority in power employs the military caste.

Every government needs the army, first of all to keep its own subjects in submission, and secondly, to safeguard the exploitation of their labour. But there is not only one government, there are many of them which all rule by violence and are ever ready to filch their neighbour’s wealth created by subjects already reduced to slavery. That is why every government needs an army not only to keep in power at home, but also to defend its booty against greedy neighbours. The States are forced to compete in increasing their arms. The example set is contagious, as Montesquieu noticed 150 years ago.

Every increase in the fighting force by one State directed against its subjects causes uneasiness to the neighbouring State and compels it to increase its army, too. If the armies today run into millions of men it is not only because of the fact that one State threatens another, it is also due above all to the desire to crush labour unrest at home. One is the result of the others: the despotism of the governments grows with their power and their successes abroad, and their aggressive disposition keeps pace with their despotism at home.

This rivalry in armaments has brought the European governments to the necessity of establishing compulsory military service, which alone procures the greatest number of men with the least expenditure. Germany was the first to adopt conscription, and other nations followed suit. Thus all citizens have been called to arms to maintain the iniquities perpetrated upon themselves, so that the citizens of a State have become the supporters of their tyrants.

What is the motive power used by governments to induce peaceful nations to commit violence and murder? It is called patriotism. It is the art of proving that one group of population separated by a conditional imaginary line, called a frontier, is far superior and preferable in every way to another group of population which lives on the other side of this imaginary line. The most friendly relations, identity of religion, of language, of instruction, of common stock and most intimate friendship, do not prevent these two groups, at a given signal, from rushing at each other and cutting each other’s throats, after the fashion of the most ferocious beasts. And the cause for this signal to kill is often a trifling misunderstanding on the part of the rulers of these two groups of people. These peaceful, good, friendly, labouring people throw themselves upon one another in such a case to destroy one another, invoking to their aid a God who, no doubt, must be a fierce Moloch, and both sides express the same blasphemies in the name of God and civilization.

The Thembelihle Crisis Committee, the United Front (UF), the Right to Know (R2K) Campaign and the Democratic Left Front call on all people of good conscience in South Africa to endorse the call for an end to the security siege of Thembelihle. Since the 25th of February 2015, Thembelihle has faced a de facto State of Emergency at the hands of the South Africa […]

a review of João Freire's Freedom Fighters: Anarchist Intellectuals, Workers, and Soldiers in Portugal's History Overshadowed in most histories by the Spanish anarchist movement next door, the Portuguese movement may have been numerically smaller but was relatively, by head of population, a *larger* movement, with the anarchosyndicalist CGT achievi […]

a review of David Berry's A History of the French Anarchist Movement, 1917-1945 To an English-speaking outsider, the French anarchist movement - as distinct from the Francophone anarchist movement in North Africa, Vietnam, etc - is often viewed as the "mother" movement because of the massive CGT union federation which, under anarchist sway, am […]

Hundreds of thousands of chiefly white middle class protesters took to the streets in Brazil on 15 March in an organized upsurge of hatred against the federal administration led by President Dilma Rousseff of the Workers’ Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT). These protests are far more cohesive and better organized than the previous wave of anti-government […]

The far Right “Reclaim Australia” plans to hold an anti-Muslim rally in Melbourne and also at other places around Australia. They want people to believe they’re just “ordinary Australians” who are worried about “radical Islam”. What they’re NOT telling you is that they are Fascists – yes, actual far Right, Hitler-loving racists who have decided it’s a tactic […]

The attack on Charlie Hebdo last January was carefully designed to the full benefit of IS, but also to the benefit of the ruling Elite in the advanced capitalist world. It was not intended as punishment for Charlie Hebdo's satiric attitude toward what IS considers as "sacred", but as punishment for millions of Muslims who accepted such an atti […]

Karl Marx once said that history repeats itself, first as a tragedy then as a farce. A case in point is that in South Africa sections of the left are once again calling for a mass workers’ party (MWP) to be formed to contest elections – this they believe will bring us closer to revolution. History says otherwise. Of course the new calls for a MWP stem from t […]

Bil'in, Ni'ilin, Nebi Saleh, Kadum, Ma'asarah, Southern Hebron Hills, Sheikh Jarrah, the Bedouins of the south, Dahamsh The merger between the Zionist leadership and the capitalist elite which started 1948 picked in the Tycoons dominance, at 20010. The "too successful" neo-liberalism was challenged by the social struggle, conflicts w […]

IF THE GOVERNMENT IS THIRSTY FOR BLOOD, THEN TAKE IT! On the first anniversary of the murder of Berkin Elvan, our comrades opened a pankart on the stairs of Gezi Park, written " Berkin is here". Our 8 comrades are assaulted, abused and taken into custody, handcuffed from the back. They poured red paint on the stairs of the Gezi Park, shouting […]

"Just as only the working class can fight capitalism because we are the ones being directly exploited, so only women, LGBTQ people and those attacked by racism (which can change from place to place and period to period) can destroy patriarchy, heterosexism and white supremacy." ---- Introduction to Anarchist Communism, Anarchist Federation ---- […]

a review of João Freire's Freedom Fighters: Anarchist Intellectuals, Workers, and Soldiers in Portugal's History ---- Overshadowed in most histories by the Spanish anarchist movement next door, the Portuguese movement may have been numerically smaller but was relatively, by head of population, a *larger* movement, with the anarchosyndicalist CGT ac […]

We have learned with shock and great sadness the death of Serge Torrano, March 30, 2015, in Agen hospital. Serge was a SUD-Rail union of the first hour, a libertarian communist militant "historic" and a Libertarian Alternative companion. ---- The war in Spain, May 68. These two major events have marked the entire trajectory of Serge Torrano. ---- C […]

With the cuts announced by the Liberal government, "regions' lose through various measures and funds, a significant portion of their funding. Already scalded by high unemployment and savings often based on a natural resource or a particular industry, these cuts do nothing to help. We must add to that a migration to "major centers" and a h […]

Construction Workers' Union Yilmaz, Remzi and Thompson in Kobani'yi with Leo about 3 months of resistance in the building after victories together, we conducted an interview about the calls they made ​​for the reconstruction of streets and the life. ---- Square: Such an idea, Construction Workers Union Where did you come to mind? What was the thing […]

Unveiled yesterday (26 March), the 2015-2016 provincial budget was announced as a "message of confidence" by the Minister of Finance Carlos Leitao. The latter, who was the head of a bank before assuming his position as Minister, said at the unveiling of the budget that his "hope today becomes reality." Since this is not a trivial exercise […]

The new headquarters of the European Central Bank was inaugurated with great fanfare on March 18 in Frankfurt. The opportunity for tens of thousands of people come to remind the institution of class struggle exists, and it is one of the targets. The menu blockages, actions and events. ---- This was to be a day of celebration for the boss of the European Cent […]

The far Right "Reclaim Australia" plans to hold an anti-Muslim rally in Melbourne and also at other places around Australia. They want people to believe they're just "ordinary Australians" who are worried about "radical Islam". What they're NOT telling you is that they are Fascists - yes, actual far Right, Hitler-lovin […]

Originally published in issue No. 27 of the Chilean anarchist newspaper Solidaridad With nearly 2000 workers and union members in Santiago and other cities Jumbo National Union, unique class union within the company faces its third collective bargaining with the experience of having staged the first strike in the history of supermarket Horst Paulman , this W […]

We have already largely exposed the context of crisis we are experiencing now. Course economic crisis with a continuous increase of misery and insecurity but also ecological crisis with the scarcity of available resources, social crisis with widespread social cannibalism and political crisis finally with, among others, a breakthrough confusionism. ---- It se […]